As an autistic myself who struggled to fit in, became very depressed and wasn't a super-macho teenage boy, I suspect that I would be pressured to describe myself as "non-binary" (a category that seems meaningless to me) if I was at school today.
Lonely, socially-awkward autistic kids who identify as trans find an automatic social support group that celebrates them -- for now. In ten years time, when some other minority group has taken their place at the top of the progressive hierarchy of victimhood and no one on the left cares about them any more, they will find themselves back where they were, only with irreversible damage to their bodies.
It's criminal that this has been allowed to happen, and all in the name of "compassion." The problem, of course, is that for many on the left, trans teens are just another weapon to use to undermine "normal" society and it's "binary categories," regardless of the human cost. They don't care about the actual human beings involved.
Thank you for this personal and profoundly important essay ❤️
I’m so sorry you had to go through that, and also so grateful that you have the enduring, compassionate, sensitive and knowing perspective coming out of that to be willing and able to care and advocate for the wellbeing of other vulnerable young girls today. Bravo 👏
Many women who had a troubled relationship with their body during adolescence or simply enjoyed masculine-coded things are now looking back and wondering what would have happened to them had they been born a little later. Unfortunately, “trans kids” has become a shibboleth of the social justice left, and questioning any aspect of trans ideology is instantly cancelable, so many remain silent. I’m glad you’ve had the courage to share your position on this issue. To me, this is not a matter of left and right. It is simply a matter of common sense and being honest about the terrible evidence base for these interventions.
I was a medical professional before my retirement. Your essay is both valid and important. The real problem is our complexity. Estrogen has over 200 functions throughout the human body, yet the medical world deals with at most 3 or 4 (feminization, the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and bone health). And that's just estrogen. Who knew oxytocin, which causes uterine contractions, also bonds the mother emotionally to her baby; that suckling (nipple-stimulation) causes the pituitary to secrete it, along with prolactin to cause milk "let down" and thus love and nurturing dovetail beautifully with nutrition and a holism of health. When you also consider there are as many possible synapses in the brain as particles in the universe (read "The Brain That Changes Itself") every one of the 8+ billion human beings on the planet is a consortium navigating the mind-body connection, the mind-gut connection, the hormonal-societal spectrum, etc. \
My point is that there are truly children born physiologically female who are mentally male, and vice versa. That "trans" people really are a thing. But further to my point, we also have no good way to tell which children are actually in this dilemma with any validity, and not being merely confused with hormonal, emotional, etc.--and even bullying--that pushes them to beg adults to get them out of their peril. The complexity probably means that we never will. In true instances of dysmorphia, too much caution means the window to intervene will close, making it harder for these persons to transition later to what they really are; and in misinterpreted gender self-disagreement, many children could be at the very risks you cite. It may be just TOO COMPLEX for us to ever feel we've got a ("Above all, do no harm") grasp of it all.
What do we do in the meantime? I wish I could sound brilliant and give you the flowsheet that should be used, but there are too many empty fields in that flowsheet as of now. Currently, total medical knowledge is doubling every 73 days (for true!), so maybe...one day...in the meantime, misguided or spot-on, a cry for help is still just that--a cry of help.
What does it even mean “mentally male”? Are there pink and blue brains in the heads of newborns? Gender identity is not biological sex. It is a long process influenced by the family dynamics, cultural definitions of masculinity and femininity, and social pressure and contagion. People who feel better in the gender identity of the opposite sex certainly exist and have always existed. This does not mean they need to be castrated. Adult have the right to do with their bodies as they choose, and if adult want to chop off healthy breasts in the vain belief that it would make her a male, she should be able to do it. But children’s gender identity is in flux. There is literally no evidence that cross-sex hormones, let alone vaginoplasty or phalloplasty, improve the mental health of a child, but they certainly create a lifetime of medical issues.
No, neither pink nor blue. Not even purple. But you are both right and wrong. I didn't use "mentally male" as some sort of droll catchphrase. I simply meant the gender a person self-identities as. You are right in that it is influenced by the family dynamics, cultural definitions of masculinity and femininity, and social pressure. But you are wrong in that there's no such self-identification based on biology. My whole comment was to emphasize the complexities involved and that we simply haven't learned enough to pontificate on this using just talking points. But biology is indeed there. If it weren't for Müllerian inhibition, courtesy of my Y-chromosome, I'd look and feel quite different. (We all start out as women!) But this may be an argument between two people who agree with each other, especially about the irreversible decisions to cut things away, particularly since our frontal lobes don't mature until our 20s.
Stop it. It really is time to cut the shit. Gender identity is not real. This concept was invented by John Money, a disturbed pedophilic psychologist working at Hopkins in the 1970s whose ideas were amplified by people like Judith Butler and other critical theorists. None of this exists in any way that can be empirically validated. I’m so so tired of “medical professionals” being this incapable of critical thought. I’ve been a psychiatrist for 20 years. Gender is a belief system about the nature of the self. I don’t believe in it and neither do most people. There is no such thing as being a mental male. If a man feels feminine or is feminine he is simply a feminine man. That is the beginning the middle and the end of it.
Great piece. I was told at 12 that I was too heavy by my pediatrician. I weighed 108 at 5’2” and had gotten my period at ten, wore at least a B if not C cup bra. I was fully developed. I stopped eating and got to 92 pounds. This was the late eighties. In high school I recovered in large part because I saw my friends get so sick from anorexia. I’m so glad I never had to deal with gender identity politics. Thank you for this article.
As you get older, you will live to see commenters in the media completely misrepresent and reimagine times you lived through. So you will know for sure they are wrong.
I am telling you, NOT ONE PERSON I ever met in the 80's and 90's claimed they were "Trans".
How could Aristotle, Dante, Milton, Shakespeare, Freud, Jung, all the artists and poets and thinkers and healers and philosophers and doctors who ever lived, for thousands of years, have failed to notice we all have a gender identity? We are to believe that it was discovered in 1990 or whatever by some genius scholars of feminism who achieved this revolutionary insight into the human condition? The claim is outrageous. Obviously, no one is trans. There are men with fetishes and girls with metal illness. That's it. Trans is not real.
Accutane has never been pulled from the U.S. market. The brand name drug lost out to several generics that undercut its price. It’s one of the best drugs we dermatologists have to offer for severe acne and is quite safe.
This is incorrect, and also doesn't make sense--if there were safety concerns not only would the brand-name but also generics would be removed from the market. Market competition drove out the more expensive brand, not any safety concerns. I'm a dermatologist with 25 years of experience prescribing the drug. I've treated over 11,000 patients with isotretinoin and it remains both safe and effective.
I was a weird, awkward, nerdy girl who went through puberty earlier than was average; I remember it seemed like I went to bed a flat-chested preteen and woke up the next day a 12-year-old with C-cups and the body of a woman. My body was considerably more developed than my brain, so the sudden attention I got from older boys and men was disconcerting to say the least. Thankfully, it was 1980 so I just spent the next few years hiding in oversized sweatshirts until I was about 15, at which point my brain caught up with my body and I realized I rather liked the attention.
My youngest daughter had a similar experience, with the added twist that she was a lesbian but didn't realize it yet. So, the sudden blossoming of womanhood and all the attendant male attention was even more distressing to her. She was always a bit of an anxious sort, and this turned into full-blown panic disorder in her teens. She became anorexic and her weight dropped dangerously low; I think she was really uncomfortable with her new curvy figure and wanted to return to the simpler days of childhood. We got her into treatment and she fully recovered and is now a happy, fit and healthy lesbian in her early 20s.
I really feel like we dodged a bullet with her; she was the ideal demographic for rapid-onset gender dysphoria, and this was right about the time that the world seemed to be going collectively insane with the trans stuff. While I wouldn't wish an eating disorder on anyone, at least all of her healthcare providers and clinicians agreed that she needed to gain weight - they didn't "affirm" her delusion and prescribe Ozempic.
Thanks for sharing your story. From the first time I heard about skyrocketing numbers of kids identifying as transgender, I thought "This sounds and looks A LOT like what I remember happening with AN."
👏👏👏🙌🙌🙌🎆🎆🎆 A courageous article that is truth crushed to Earth, Liza! I know you had wanted to write exactly this piece for the longest time but feared the mob coming for you. But in the era of Trump with the country becoming more conservative, scientific truth finally seeing the light of day on this issue and detransitioners like Kiera Bell, Chloe Cole and Maia Poet being able to come out and tell their stories and the Overton Window opening up, now you are able to tell your story and voice your opinion on this issue. I’m so sorry you suffered from that horrific eating disorder, had the issues with your body you did and almost died! That is so, so sad and heartbreaking! I’m so glad you survived and are here today! I believe God put you on this Earth with a purpose: that being to share your love of literature and the fine arts with others and bring into the light hidden truths. Your life was very much worth saving whatever others may of thought of you because you have so much to give those you love and the world! This is one of them: that much like eating disorders were sadly a trend among young girls of your generation, gender dysphoria and being Trans are among young girls of Gen Z.
The issues you dealt with could’ve had you been born years later, require that you go through “gender-affirming care” and transition to become a boy. But you are not and never will be a male. You’re a tomboy in other words, a masculine woman. Lots of women are, it doesn’t make one Trans. The way to deal with the issues you suffered from and they deal with its gender-affirming care, it medical and psychological treatment and lots of love. Are there boys and girls who legitimately suffer from gender dysphoria? Yes, absolutely. But most of those who are labeled as such are going through a phase, gay or lesbian, autistic, or have mental health issues. Their not actually transgender and a sex change operations and puberty and hormone blockers should not be given to them. Look, children change their mind like the wind, they don’t know who they are yet. They are also very impressionable. Filling their heads with ideas they are the opposite sex when you have no idea if that’s actually the cause of their gender confusion or not is extremely reckless and dangerous. If your child expresses gender confusion take them to a therapist, don’t just agree with them on whatever they say.
That will not help them, if anything it will destroy their lives. Gender-affirming care for minors is barbaric! I applaud President Trump for banning it! I’m also happy to say it’s not just on the right their is pushback on this issue. There are voices on the left calling this out too. There is an organization called DIAG: Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender: https://www.di-ag.org/join-us They too fight against the horrific practice of child genital mutilation. Other great organizations fighting this scourge are Genspect and the LGB Courage Coalition. Stop suppressing the data on hormone and puberty blockers! Political correctness and ideological dogma don’t matter! What matters is science, common sense, actual compassion, and facts! Young girls today dealing with gender dysphoria need a sympathetic ear not a sex-change operation! I’m so glad you mentioned folks on the spectrum like myself having trouble fitting in! I really thank you for that Liza! 🙏 They don’t need to be subjected to this monstrosity, they need to be taught how to interact with others and make friends. People with mental health issues need therapy, someone with the proper training to talk to and understand them and lots of love and affection. Transitioning them will not help them in any way, shape or form and is cruel and immoral!
Look, I am all for Transgender people receiving civil rights and anti-discrimination protections in employment, housing and banking. I’m well aware of the discrimination, violence, abuse, and social ostracism Trans people have dealt with historically. For example, Rita Hester who was horrifically murdered in a hate crime in 1997. She was stabbed twenty times by an unknown assailant just for who she was. She is the reason that today we observe Transgender Day of Visibility. Another example, Sam Nordquist who was brutally and sadistically tortured between December 2024 and October 2025 and then was murdered by seven people. I know the hate and intolerance Trans people deal with to this day. None of what I’ve said above is meant to diminish that or say they don’t deserve equal rights under the law or that hate crimes against Trans people shouldn’t be prosecuted to the fullest extent. I also think it’s tragic Trans people have such high murder and suicide rates. We as a society need to act to reverse those horrific trends! Nor would Liza or any of her subscribers disagree with any of what I just I’d wager. No one here doesn’t want Trans people to have human rights or that they deserve love and respect and to live in dignity.
But the science must be followed and we need to balance our desire for inclusion for Transgender people with protecting the rights of young children and teenagers to not have irreversible damage to their bodies inflicted on them in the name of some misguided sense of compassion. Young girls like Liza once was, have the right to have their gender dysphoria and body issues handled the proper way that won’t lead them to do something drastic to themselves they will regret for the rest of their lives and will destroy their bodies and minds. We can do both in this great country! Do I think gender-affirming care should be illegal across the board? No, I think it should be legal for adults, I’ll be it taken on a case by case basis. But for minors it should absolutely be illegal in all 50 states and in all U.S. territories. To protect young girls, I call for a global ban on gender-affirming care for minors! Furthermore, we need yo acknowledge that biological sex is real. Transgender people can live as women, but they will never actually be women. Same with Trans men, they will always be biologically female. In closing, I’d like to thank you again Liza for sharing your story and your courage in publishing this piece! I’d recommend to everyone a couple great Substack writers who talk sense on this topic: those being Zander Keig who is a Trans man, and Maia Poet a detransitioner who fell into the gender cult, but luckily got out of it.
I’d like to recommend to everyone the following great reads on this topic:
• Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Shrier
• When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment by Ryan T. Anderson
• The End of Gender: Debunking Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society by Dr. Deborah Soh
• Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrists Guide Out of the Madness by Miriam Grossman
• Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality by Helen Joyce
• Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and One Scholar’s Search for Justice by Alice Dreger
• Detrans: True Stories of Escaping the Gender Ideology Cult by Mary Margaret Olohan
• Swimming Against the Current: Fighting for Common Sense in a World That’s Lost Its Mind by Riley Gaines
Thank you for saying this. I agree wholeheartedly. I also developed early.
Beyond that, even medically speaking, many girls diagnosed with PCOS will inherently be more masculine, and are thus at risk in the current gender narrative 🤦🏻♀️
As an autistic myself who struggled to fit in, became very depressed and wasn't a super-macho teenage boy, I suspect that I would be pressured to describe myself as "non-binary" (a category that seems meaningless to me) if I was at school today.
Lonely, socially-awkward autistic kids who identify as trans find an automatic social support group that celebrates them -- for now. In ten years time, when some other minority group has taken their place at the top of the progressive hierarchy of victimhood and no one on the left cares about them any more, they will find themselves back where they were, only with irreversible damage to their bodies.
It's criminal that this has been allowed to happen, and all in the name of "compassion." The problem, of course, is that for many on the left, trans teens are just another weapon to use to undermine "normal" society and it's "binary categories," regardless of the human cost. They don't care about the actual human beings involved.
Thank you for this personal and profoundly important essay ❤️
I’m so sorry you had to go through that, and also so grateful that you have the enduring, compassionate, sensitive and knowing perspective coming out of that to be willing and able to care and advocate for the wellbeing of other vulnerable young girls today. Bravo 👏
Many women who had a troubled relationship with their body during adolescence or simply enjoyed masculine-coded things are now looking back and wondering what would have happened to them had they been born a little later. Unfortunately, “trans kids” has become a shibboleth of the social justice left, and questioning any aspect of trans ideology is instantly cancelable, so many remain silent. I’m glad you’ve had the courage to share your position on this issue. To me, this is not a matter of left and right. It is simply a matter of common sense and being honest about the terrible evidence base for these interventions.
I was a medical professional before my retirement. Your essay is both valid and important. The real problem is our complexity. Estrogen has over 200 functions throughout the human body, yet the medical world deals with at most 3 or 4 (feminization, the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and bone health). And that's just estrogen. Who knew oxytocin, which causes uterine contractions, also bonds the mother emotionally to her baby; that suckling (nipple-stimulation) causes the pituitary to secrete it, along with prolactin to cause milk "let down" and thus love and nurturing dovetail beautifully with nutrition and a holism of health. When you also consider there are as many possible synapses in the brain as particles in the universe (read "The Brain That Changes Itself") every one of the 8+ billion human beings on the planet is a consortium navigating the mind-body connection, the mind-gut connection, the hormonal-societal spectrum, etc. \
My point is that there are truly children born physiologically female who are mentally male, and vice versa. That "trans" people really are a thing. But further to my point, we also have no good way to tell which children are actually in this dilemma with any validity, and not being merely confused with hormonal, emotional, etc.--and even bullying--that pushes them to beg adults to get them out of their peril. The complexity probably means that we never will. In true instances of dysmorphia, too much caution means the window to intervene will close, making it harder for these persons to transition later to what they really are; and in misinterpreted gender self-disagreement, many children could be at the very risks you cite. It may be just TOO COMPLEX for us to ever feel we've got a ("Above all, do no harm") grasp of it all.
What do we do in the meantime? I wish I could sound brilliant and give you the flowsheet that should be used, but there are too many empty fields in that flowsheet as of now. Currently, total medical knowledge is doubling every 73 days (for true!), so maybe...one day...in the meantime, misguided or spot-on, a cry for help is still just that--a cry of help.
What does it even mean “mentally male”? Are there pink and blue brains in the heads of newborns? Gender identity is not biological sex. It is a long process influenced by the family dynamics, cultural definitions of masculinity and femininity, and social pressure and contagion. People who feel better in the gender identity of the opposite sex certainly exist and have always existed. This does not mean they need to be castrated. Adult have the right to do with their bodies as they choose, and if adult want to chop off healthy breasts in the vain belief that it would make her a male, she should be able to do it. But children’s gender identity is in flux. There is literally no evidence that cross-sex hormones, let alone vaginoplasty or phalloplasty, improve the mental health of a child, but they certainly create a lifetime of medical issues.
No, neither pink nor blue. Not even purple. But you are both right and wrong. I didn't use "mentally male" as some sort of droll catchphrase. I simply meant the gender a person self-identities as. You are right in that it is influenced by the family dynamics, cultural definitions of masculinity and femininity, and social pressure. But you are wrong in that there's no such self-identification based on biology. My whole comment was to emphasize the complexities involved and that we simply haven't learned enough to pontificate on this using just talking points. But biology is indeed there. If it weren't for Müllerian inhibition, courtesy of my Y-chromosome, I'd look and feel quite different. (We all start out as women!) But this may be an argument between two people who agree with each other, especially about the irreversible decisions to cut things away, particularly since our frontal lobes don't mature until our 20s.
Stop it. It really is time to cut the shit. Gender identity is not real. This concept was invented by John Money, a disturbed pedophilic psychologist working at Hopkins in the 1970s whose ideas were amplified by people like Judith Butler and other critical theorists. None of this exists in any way that can be empirically validated. I’m so so tired of “medical professionals” being this incapable of critical thought. I’ve been a psychiatrist for 20 years. Gender is a belief system about the nature of the self. I don’t believe in it and neither do most people. There is no such thing as being a mental male. If a man feels feminine or is feminine he is simply a feminine man. That is the beginning the middle and the end of it.
"That is the beginning the middle and the end of it." Well, there we are! Who knew there are those critical thinkers who know everything?
Great piece. I was told at 12 that I was too heavy by my pediatrician. I weighed 108 at 5’2” and had gotten my period at ten, wore at least a B if not C cup bra. I was fully developed. I stopped eating and got to 92 pounds. This was the late eighties. In high school I recovered in large part because I saw my friends get so sick from anorexia. I’m so glad I never had to deal with gender identity politics. Thank you for this article.
As you get older, you will live to see commenters in the media completely misrepresent and reimagine times you lived through. So you will know for sure they are wrong.
I am telling you, NOT ONE PERSON I ever met in the 80's and 90's claimed they were "Trans".
How could Aristotle, Dante, Milton, Shakespeare, Freud, Jung, all the artists and poets and thinkers and healers and philosophers and doctors who ever lived, for thousands of years, have failed to notice we all have a gender identity? We are to believe that it was discovered in 1990 or whatever by some genius scholars of feminism who achieved this revolutionary insight into the human condition? The claim is outrageous. Obviously, no one is trans. There are men with fetishes and girls with metal illness. That's it. Trans is not real.
Accutane has never been pulled from the U.S. market. The brand name drug lost out to several generics that undercut its price. It’s one of the best drugs we dermatologists have to offer for severe acne and is quite safe.
The brand name was indeed pulled in 2009 over safety concerns. The generic is still available.
This is incorrect, and also doesn't make sense--if there were safety concerns not only would the brand-name but also generics would be removed from the market. Market competition drove out the more expensive brand, not any safety concerns. I'm a dermatologist with 25 years of experience prescribing the drug. I've treated over 11,000 patients with isotretinoin and it remains both safe and effective.
For completeness:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190962224030731
Liza is correct that there have been safety concerns, but Dr Kerner is correct that these have since been shown to be non-significant.
I was a weird, awkward, nerdy girl who went through puberty earlier than was average; I remember it seemed like I went to bed a flat-chested preteen and woke up the next day a 12-year-old with C-cups and the body of a woman. My body was considerably more developed than my brain, so the sudden attention I got from older boys and men was disconcerting to say the least. Thankfully, it was 1980 so I just spent the next few years hiding in oversized sweatshirts until I was about 15, at which point my brain caught up with my body and I realized I rather liked the attention.
My youngest daughter had a similar experience, with the added twist that she was a lesbian but didn't realize it yet. So, the sudden blossoming of womanhood and all the attendant male attention was even more distressing to her. She was always a bit of an anxious sort, and this turned into full-blown panic disorder in her teens. She became anorexic and her weight dropped dangerously low; I think she was really uncomfortable with her new curvy figure and wanted to return to the simpler days of childhood. We got her into treatment and she fully recovered and is now a happy, fit and healthy lesbian in her early 20s.
I really feel like we dodged a bullet with her; she was the ideal demographic for rapid-onset gender dysphoria, and this was right about the time that the world seemed to be going collectively insane with the trans stuff. While I wouldn't wish an eating disorder on anyone, at least all of her healthcare providers and clinicians agreed that she needed to gain weight - they didn't "affirm" her delusion and prescribe Ozempic.
I am very glad that I grew up early than the fad, because they would have gone all out on me as obviously a transboy.
Thanks for sharing your story. From the first time I heard about skyrocketing numbers of kids identifying as transgender, I thought "This sounds and looks A LOT like what I remember happening with AN."
👏👏👏🙌🙌🙌🎆🎆🎆 A courageous article that is truth crushed to Earth, Liza! I know you had wanted to write exactly this piece for the longest time but feared the mob coming for you. But in the era of Trump with the country becoming more conservative, scientific truth finally seeing the light of day on this issue and detransitioners like Kiera Bell, Chloe Cole and Maia Poet being able to come out and tell their stories and the Overton Window opening up, now you are able to tell your story and voice your opinion on this issue. I’m so sorry you suffered from that horrific eating disorder, had the issues with your body you did and almost died! That is so, so sad and heartbreaking! I’m so glad you survived and are here today! I believe God put you on this Earth with a purpose: that being to share your love of literature and the fine arts with others and bring into the light hidden truths. Your life was very much worth saving whatever others may of thought of you because you have so much to give those you love and the world! This is one of them: that much like eating disorders were sadly a trend among young girls of your generation, gender dysphoria and being Trans are among young girls of Gen Z.
The issues you dealt with could’ve had you been born years later, require that you go through “gender-affirming care” and transition to become a boy. But you are not and never will be a male. You’re a tomboy in other words, a masculine woman. Lots of women are, it doesn’t make one Trans. The way to deal with the issues you suffered from and they deal with its gender-affirming care, it medical and psychological treatment and lots of love. Are there boys and girls who legitimately suffer from gender dysphoria? Yes, absolutely. But most of those who are labeled as such are going through a phase, gay or lesbian, autistic, or have mental health issues. Their not actually transgender and a sex change operations and puberty and hormone blockers should not be given to them. Look, children change their mind like the wind, they don’t know who they are yet. They are also very impressionable. Filling their heads with ideas they are the opposite sex when you have no idea if that’s actually the cause of their gender confusion or not is extremely reckless and dangerous. If your child expresses gender confusion take them to a therapist, don’t just agree with them on whatever they say.
That will not help them, if anything it will destroy their lives. Gender-affirming care for minors is barbaric! I applaud President Trump for banning it! I’m also happy to say it’s not just on the right their is pushback on this issue. There are voices on the left calling this out too. There is an organization called DIAG: Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender: https://www.di-ag.org/join-us They too fight against the horrific practice of child genital mutilation. Other great organizations fighting this scourge are Genspect and the LGB Courage Coalition. Stop suppressing the data on hormone and puberty blockers! Political correctness and ideological dogma don’t matter! What matters is science, common sense, actual compassion, and facts! Young girls today dealing with gender dysphoria need a sympathetic ear not a sex-change operation! I’m so glad you mentioned folks on the spectrum like myself having trouble fitting in! I really thank you for that Liza! 🙏 They don’t need to be subjected to this monstrosity, they need to be taught how to interact with others and make friends. People with mental health issues need therapy, someone with the proper training to talk to and understand them and lots of love and affection. Transitioning them will not help them in any way, shape or form and is cruel and immoral!
Look, I am all for Transgender people receiving civil rights and anti-discrimination protections in employment, housing and banking. I’m well aware of the discrimination, violence, abuse, and social ostracism Trans people have dealt with historically. For example, Rita Hester who was horrifically murdered in a hate crime in 1997. She was stabbed twenty times by an unknown assailant just for who she was. She is the reason that today we observe Transgender Day of Visibility. Another example, Sam Nordquist who was brutally and sadistically tortured between December 2024 and October 2025 and then was murdered by seven people. I know the hate and intolerance Trans people deal with to this day. None of what I’ve said above is meant to diminish that or say they don’t deserve equal rights under the law or that hate crimes against Trans people shouldn’t be prosecuted to the fullest extent. I also think it’s tragic Trans people have such high murder and suicide rates. We as a society need to act to reverse those horrific trends! Nor would Liza or any of her subscribers disagree with any of what I just I’d wager. No one here doesn’t want Trans people to have human rights or that they deserve love and respect and to live in dignity.
But the science must be followed and we need to balance our desire for inclusion for Transgender people with protecting the rights of young children and teenagers to not have irreversible damage to their bodies inflicted on them in the name of some misguided sense of compassion. Young girls like Liza once was, have the right to have their gender dysphoria and body issues handled the proper way that won’t lead them to do something drastic to themselves they will regret for the rest of their lives and will destroy their bodies and minds. We can do both in this great country! Do I think gender-affirming care should be illegal across the board? No, I think it should be legal for adults, I’ll be it taken on a case by case basis. But for minors it should absolutely be illegal in all 50 states and in all U.S. territories. To protect young girls, I call for a global ban on gender-affirming care for minors! Furthermore, we need yo acknowledge that biological sex is real. Transgender people can live as women, but they will never actually be women. Same with Trans men, they will always be biologically female. In closing, I’d like to thank you again Liza for sharing your story and your courage in publishing this piece! I’d recommend to everyone a couple great Substack writers who talk sense on this topic: those being Zander Keig who is a Trans man, and Maia Poet a detransitioner who fell into the gender cult, but luckily got out of it.
I’d like to recommend to everyone the following great reads on this topic:
• Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Shrier
• When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment by Ryan T. Anderson
• The End of Gender: Debunking Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society by Dr. Deborah Soh
• Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrists Guide Out of the Madness by Miriam Grossman
• Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality by Helen Joyce
• Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and One Scholar’s Search for Justice by Alice Dreger
• Detrans: True Stories of Escaping the Gender Ideology Cult by Mary Margaret Olohan
• Swimming Against the Current: Fighting for Common Sense in a World That’s Lost Its Mind by Riley Gaines
Thank you for saying this. I agree wholeheartedly. I also developed early.
Beyond that, even medically speaking, many girls diagnosed with PCOS will inherently be more masculine, and are thus at risk in the current gender narrative 🤦🏻♀️